How to be a better Christian by Ella Jane Rollins Yorkie Extraordinaire

I have the cutest dog in the world. She is a sweet little thing and she is my puppy-daughter.  As much as I love her, that dog drives me crazy! If I had a dollar for every time I said "Move Ella" this blog would be written somewhere tropical with a pool, as my husband fans me and feeds me grapes. Or better yet feeds me coconut cake that has no fat and calories and all the flavor. Hey- if I am going to dream, I am going to dream BIG! As dear hubby says, "That dog should be called Lafawnduh, cause she all up on ya."

The restraint it has taken to make it this long without a Napolean Dynomite reference is astounding! But now that they have started.... Y'all are in trouble!

Dear People Reading My Mommy's Blog,
I do not wear this stuff. She got this on for 2.7 seconds and it had to go. 

This dog is always up under your feet. She wants family time and she wants it all the time. We are her pack and we stick together. All. The. Time. Again, it drives me crazy but it is surprisingly inspirational.

It is funny where I find inspiration for my walk with Jesus. Over the past few months, things that I need to write about have hit me watching scary movies, grocery shopping, reading the bible, moving the dog, breaking wooden spatulas while breaking up a bag of ice. Don't judge, better the spatula than people. How is it a six pound dog that can stretch to 9' x 9' and hog more of the bed than my 6'3" husband be a inspiration to a Christian you may ask. We should be under the feet of Jesus like little piranha there waiting for me to drop a morsel of dinner.  No, really, we should.

Ella-dawg is constantly seeking me out. She wants to be with me, sit in my lap, lay beside me, walk with me, love on me. She is currently headbutting because I am not sitting in such a way to promote her utmost comfort. Every single minute of every hour I am home, she wants to be with me. She is stuck to me like gum on the bottom of my shoe.  People, she sticks her nose under the bathroom door! She wants to do what I am doing, go where I am going. She follows my lead. She feels safe and loved and knows who takes care of her. Don't believe me? This is a regular occurrence...

Hello sorry puppy!

We all know you only sleep like that when you feel protected and loved. This pile of poopy puppy sleeps like this everyday. Every. Single. Day. 

Here is your homework assignment: Think about how your life would change if you doggedly (ha! Sorry, I couldn't resist) sought Jesus like Ella seeks me. No seriously, think about that for a moment.

How would your life change if you sought Jesus so completely, so thoroughly that he was our first thought in the morning and our last in the evening? Talk about radical changes. We cannot fathom the changes until we try it and the crazy thing it wouldn't be just your life that changed. 

My hubby has a friend that is a sweet, kind, hardworking young man. He is the type of person that you pray your children grow up to be. He lives his life putting Jesus first. He is fun, he has a good time and he laughs. He smiles all the time and it is a genuine, make your day better smile. I know, crazy huh? He doesn't walk around miserable, scowling and making those around him uncomfortable. He doesn't turn people off from Jesus, he attracts them to Jesus like a moth to a flame. He shows others the love and joy of Christ. He seeks Jesus like Ella seeks me. He humbles himself at Jesus' feet and is all the better for it. His joy and peace make people question what he has that they don't. He changes the life of those around him, just ask dear hubby. 

To quote the Doobie Brothers, dear hubby had a "Jesus is just alright with me" kind of attitude. He believed but had a hands off approach thanks to the actions and words of those who could be just a touch too religious. But over the past few months, I have seen him develop a deeper, more intimate relationship with the Lord. Hubby always says that I am the most positive person he knows but that is just me. I think since he has known me so long, he chalks it up to just being part of who I am and my personality. It is part of my personality, the Jesus part of my personality because trust me I can throw down and whine/complain/poor pitiful me like the best of them. It took seeing someone else have this same joy, same purpose to realize there is something to giving in wholeheartedly and seeking Jesus. 

I am sure this young man would tell us everything isn't always peachy keen and there are days when he struggles just like me and any other Christian who has walked, walks and will walk the face of this Earth. Humbly seeking and following Jesus, sitting at his feet, listening to and following his lead doesn't make things perfect #1:

entirely without any flaws, defects, or shortcomings

It makes them perfect #2:

exactly fitting the need in a certain situation or for a certain purpose

My devotional verses today were- John 15: 1-17

1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.2He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunesso that it will be even more fruitful.3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.4Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.6If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.10If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.13Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.14You are my friends if you do what I command.15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.17This is my command: Love each other.

The funny thing is I started writing this post a while ago and just could not figure out where it was going. Leave it to the instruction manual to show me what to do.

love- j

Thank you Friend!

Where did that two months go? Oh yeah, it went into me not losing my mind that my kitchen update which was supposed to be done late February still is trudging along. You can only wash your dishes in your bathtub but so long before you want to break things... Over people's heads. But hopefully things will be done in time for Easter Dinner, if not it will be ham and pineapple pizza instead of ham for lunch and a pineapple cake for dessert.

But the real reason I have not posted in the past two months is because life has been difficult. Everyone has times that are valleys in their lives. Those are the times that the enemy is gunning for you. And here lately he has hit hard, backed up and hit again, pushing all the right buttons in all the right places to make life tough. I feel like I have gone 15 rounds with Tyson. I have bumps and bruises from this battle. And I am exhausted. Exhausted at the fact that the war seemed never ending. I would get over one hurdle and another would pop up and trip me again. I had literally reached the point that I physically did not have the strength to take one more thing. So I prayed.

Three simple little words. So I prayed.

Now, please do not think that I had not been all a long. I had. But this day, my prayer was much different. It was not me blabbing about the situation- God was there he knows what it is. It was not me praying that I not punch someone- God was there so thankfully I didn't. It wasn't me asking for a solution because I cannot take another minute without one- God knows his plan and his timing. It was so basic and yet so powerful. I simply prayed, "Lord, I am tired. I cannot do this. I need your strength to get this done and not go back and pull the covers over my head. I need this to be you, not me."  Where was this prayer for the past 5 months? Why did it take so long to get to the point of asking God to take it and let Him take care of me when I needed Him most?

 I think maybe because I was fighting the good fight and praying and still listening to God, things were difficult and although not getting much better, they were not getting any worse. But the last hit the enemy took was one too many and the straw that broke the camel's back. I was done. I simply could not take another thing without God somehow intervening and pulling me out of the quick sand.  So I asked Him to give me His strength. And He did. Now I am embarrassed to say that I asked for this help in cleaning my house. Yep- you just read that correctly. I have been wrung through the ringer lately and the thing that made me pray that prayer was cleaning my house. But I had spent so much time and energy battling everything else that I had nothing left for something important. (Remember- family is coming for Easter Dinner so a clean house is IMPORTANT. And the only room for bunnies on Easter Sunday is the Easter Bunny not dust bunnies. Not to mention, my people will call me out, with love, but out none-the-less.)

I mentioned this to a very wise friend at church and he made a comparison that blew my mind. He said "You know Jesus prayed the same thing in pretty much the same way." Back that train up Mr. Conductor- What? Jesus, the Son of God. God, Himself in human form? Oh no He didn't. But as very wise friend pointed out, oh yes He did, in Gethsemane.

Matthew 26:37 says that Jesus was sad and troubled.

He was getting ready to face death, a lonely, frightening, unbelievably painful death. And regardless of His divinity, He was human. He was going to face this death in human form, feeling and suffering every moment as we would. He was sad and troubled so much so as He prayed His sweat was drops of blood. He prayed that God would take it away. But that, regardless, His fate be God's will. And I cannot help but believe, as wise friend so kindly pointed out, that Jesus' statement of "not as I will but as you will" and "do what you want, and not what I want" did not only mean your will through me but also "I cannot do this alone, I need your strength."

Matthew 26: 39
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Mark 14: 35-36
Jesus walked on a little way. Then he knelt down on the ground and prayed, “Father, if it is possible, don't let this happen to me! Father, you can do anything. Don't make me suffer by drinking from this cup. But do what you want, and not what I want.”

Luke 22: 42-43

42“Father, if you will, please don't make me suffer by drinking from this cup. But do what you want, and not what I want.”

 43Then an angel from heaven came to help him.

So why do we wait so long to ask God to be what He wants to be anyway? Why does it take hitting bottom to ask for God's will in our lives and His strength to get us through it? I am sure we could play Mad Libs. It takes me so long to pray prayer (insert silly reason here): I can fix it. It's too silly to ask. God isn't interested in that small detail. It will be fine.

If we, as Christians, are to be like Jesus, our example is clear. It is perfectly okay to pray this, anytime. God is our medic, crutch, life preserver, breath and heart. He wants to be there first, last and every second in between. We just simply have to ask. He wants us to simply ask "Father, more you than me."

And yes, sometimes His will is going to take us places that only His strength will get us through. It is how he teaches us to fully rely on him.

love- j